Free Force Out by Tim Green

music to end, wobbling and snapping and ducking his head. It finally did end, and his feet mercifully planted themselves on the gym floor, side by side, where they were meant to be.
    â€œOkay,” she said, and he followed her back to her group.
    The other girls giggled, but she shushed them with a look, and Bryan Adams started to croon “Heaven” over the sound system. Leah turned to him and looked at the floor. She might have even blushed, but it was hard to tell in the light.
    Behind her, Zach emerged from the throng of people and pointed at her, nodding at him to do it. Zach mouthed the words, “ASK HER!”
    Joey started to reach out for her hand, to touch it, to maybe even take it and lead her onto the floor. The other girls watched, and in that instant he tried to read their faces and it was a big mistake.

26
    One of them looked longingly. Two others seemed bitter, maybe with envy, he didn’t know. The fourth had only scorn and that look was what did him in. The look said plain as day He won’t do it, he’s chicken .
    Joey felt his stomach heave.
    â€œExcuse me.” He didn’t even know if Leah’d heard him, but it didn’t matter. Joey sprinted for the exit, dashed down the hallway, and just made it to the glass door leading out into the courtyard by the cafeteria. He barreled through it before blowing half-digested tuna casserole all over the brick pavers. He choked and coughed, then spit as much of the acid as he could out of his mouth before he staggered through the weak light to a picnic table, sat on the bench, and held his head to keep it from exploding.
    When the door clacked open, he didn’t even look up.
    â€œBro, are you okay?”
    Joey stared up at Zach and blinked away his tears of frustration and horror. “This is the crappiest day of my life.”
    Zach sidestepped the mess, sat down next to him on the bench, and put a hand across his shoulders. “It’s okay. Leah’s fine. She got a laugh out of your dancing.”
    â€œGreat.”
    â€œWell, bro . . .”
    â€œI know.” Joey swatted his hand in the air. “It was pathetic. Why did I even come? Why did I say yes?”
    â€œSo she knows how much you care. That’s the good part. I told her you wouldn’t have done that for anyone. And you know what?”
    Zach didn’t speak until Joey looked at him. “She thinks that’s cool.”
    â€œBull.”
    â€œI’m telling you, she said it, not me. You’re fine.”
    â€œI smell like puke, and the scary thing is I don’t think it’s much worse than the tuna I smelled like before I puked.”
    Zach peered at the spattered bricks. “Did you know some of the most expensive perfumes in the world are made of whale puke?”
    â€œFunny.”
    â€œI’m serious. It’s called ambergris. Look it up, I kid you not. Come on, let’s go get something for you to eat and get that taste out of your mouth. You’ll feel better, then.”
    Joey followed Zach back inside, then down the hallway, past the gym, and out the front entrance into the night. They stood just outside the cone of a streetlight, looking back at the school.
    Zach raised an eyebrow. “Dark Owl Diner?”
    â€œYeah,” Joey said. “I am kinda hungry.”
    They cut through a neighborhood next to the school and came to the main road. From there it was about a mile to a strip mall, where the diner took up the end spot next to a tanning salon. Several dozen cars filled that end of the parking lot, and through the big glass window they could see lots of people. They pushed through the door into the busy diner and Zach grabbed Joey’s arm, pulling him up short.
    Zach angled his head toward the booths in the back. “Bro, look over there. Do you see what I see?”

27
    Joey peered through the yellow light and the waitresses flitting to and fro. “It’s Coach Barrett. So